Nashville Ballet showcases portions of the ballet The Sleeping Beauty and the popular children’s book Jump, Frog, Jump! by Robert Kalan in its performance of Princesses and Frogs for children and families May 12-20, at The Martin Center for Nashville Ballet.
“Princesses and Frogs is designed specifically for families with small children, with its short run time, small audience size and audience participation component,” Nashville Ballet Director of Artistic Operations Sharyn Mahoney said.
The portion of The Sleeping Beauty included in Princesses and Frogs shows five fairies bestowing their magical gifts upon the baby Princess Aurora, thrilling young children with their colorful costumes and classical story. The excerpt is a precursor to the full-length performance of The Sleeping Beauty that Nashville Ballet stages in October at the beginning of its 2012-2013 performance season.
Jump, Frog, Jumptells the story of a clever frog that escapes capture from the predators in and around his pond. It is completely narrated with help from the audience, encourages audience participation and retraces the story from the beginning each time a new character is added, allowing children to participate and develop their memory skills.
“Through our community outreach performances, our in-studio children’s performances and our School of Nashville Ballet, we introduce music and dance to young children across the state, and hopefully inspire the next generation of artists and patrons,” Mahoney said.
The School of Nashville Ballet Children’s Program Coordinator and former company dancer Caylan Cheadle will teach audience members how to dance like each of the animals from Jump, Frog, Jump! directly following the performance.
Members of Nashville Ballet’s second company, NB2, will perform in the production.
Princesses and Frogs will be held at The Martin Center for Nashville Ballet for four performances:
Saturday, May 12 at 2 p.m.
Sunday, May 13 at 2 p.m.
Saturday, May 19 at 10 a.m. (Sold Out)
Sunday, May 20 at 2 p.m. (Sold Out)
Ticket Information
Tickets to Princesses and Frogs are on sale for $12 (children) and $18 (adults). They can be purchased in person at the TPAC box office in downtown Nashville, by phone at (615) 782-4040 oronline at www.nashvilleballet.com. Season tickets for the upcoming 2012-2013 performance season will be on sale to the public June 1. Tickets to individual performances in the upcoming 2012-2013 performance season will be available July 2.
About Nashville Ballet
Nashville Ballet is the largest professional ballet company in Tennessee. As the second largest producing arts organization in the Middle Tennessee area, Nashville Ballet presents a varied repertoire of classical ballet and contemporary works by noted choreographers, including original works by Artistic Director Paul Vasterling. Nashville Ballet and the second company NB2 (a pre-professional training company) serve nearly 70,000 adults and children annually through performances and our outreach and community engagement programming. Our curriculum-based outreach program brings dance education to community centers, colleges, public libraries, eight resident schools, and public elementary and middle schools over a 15-county region throughout Middle Tennessee. The School of Nashville Ballet provides world-class instruction in ballet for the dancers of tomorrow.
Nashville Ballet is funded in part from grants made available through the Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission, the Tennessee Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the Ingram Charitable Trust. Additional funding is also provided by HCA Tri-Star, The Martin Foundation, Regions Bank, Bridgestone Americas Trust Fund, and the Andrew Woodfin Miller Foundation.